Friday, November 7, 2008

When I was visiting my parents this past summer, my mom gave me some hand-written recipes from my grandmother to keep. For me, "hand-me-down" recipes are the best kind of gift to receive. They have been carefully written down, marked up with notes, splattered with butter, and are torn and brown at the edges. It makes me wonder what hand-me-down recipes I'll be leaving my kids since most of my recipes will be typed up in a blog. Does it have the same personality? Should it?

This is one of the handwritten recipes I found in the pile: Rickety Uncles. It was one of my favorite treats growing up. When visiting my aunt as a child, I would often hope that she had these on the table for our traditional gather-around-the-table-and eat-and-catch-up time after our two-hour car ride to her house.

Rickety Uncles. It's such an unusal name. I found another similar recipe in my grandmother's notebook, but it's called Oatmeal Squares, which doesn't have the same charm. After a bit of digging, one source said it was published in the Milwaukee Journal in Wisconsin around the mid 1950's. I'm not sure this is true. I always thought they were named after my cousin "Rick"!

Although I love these bars plain, I thought I'd improve them slightly by icing the bars with some warm Nutella and flaked hazelnuts. Wow!

For the Rickety Uncles: Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Melt the margarine or butter either on top of the stove or in a microwave. Stir in rolled oats, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla. Press into an ungreased 8x8 pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool.

For the frosting: Heat the Nutella either on top of the stove or in a microwave and spread on the bars. Sprinkle with flaked hazelnuts.

The best thing my grandma left me, aside from her ability to tell a good story (she says modestly), is a few tins of handwritten recipes. And I agree with sefa: my grandma's handwriting looks strangely like that of yours!

I agree - its so wonderful to be able to cook/bake using the very same recipe that your grandmother used - there's just something about it that makes the dish taste that much better! I purposefully hand-write all of the recipes I find/use for that very reason - someday, I want my grandchildren to be able to treasure the recipes I once treasured! These look great, by the way - I love the addition of the Nutella and hazelnuts!!

Oh Wow! All these prior comments inspire me to write by hand as well, for my kids. All this time I was thinking I was leaving a proper legacy on the computer/web. Go figure. Do we have it all backwards? Maybe one day they will giggle when they have a chance to remember eating next to the computer. ha haLove the sentiments associated with the sharing of this old family recipe. They do sound so comforting. its oatmeal and brown sugar. Thats an awesome combo.AmyRuth

I haven't heard of Rickety Uncles either. All I remember of my grandmother's food that I liked was that ambrosia salad. With the two layers of jello over the pineappley, marshmallowy salad layer. I wish I had that recipe, just to try it again as an adult. The bars sound like a lot of fun - I love the nutella addition.

This is an adorable, post! First off, I also love hand me down recipes, they're definitely worth treasuring more than most heirlooms. Second, the name of these sweet treats is so fun! They look and sound super tasty! :D

I used to make Rickety Uncles when I was a teenager. I'm 43 now. Anyway my mom had a cookie cookbook with about a hundred recipes and there was the Rickety Uncle recipe. Heaven knows what happened to the cookbook, it has been lost for years. Today I was remembering Rickety Uncles and wanting to make them for my kids. I got the great idea of looking on the web and joy oh joy here you had it. There are some others but the ingredients aren't right. These are just as I remember: oats, brown sugar, and butter. I seem to remember that the ones I made had baking soda, but I may be wrong and I can't imagine that they would need it. So thank you so much for this recipe and I will try to post one or two from my family.

Ah...childhood memories, or wait I made these a month ago. I decide to google Rickety Uncle, because I was discussing them with a friend on a drive home today. I wanted to know if anyone else had heard of them before (because she had no idea what I as talking about..and WaaLaa..here is your post! did you ever find out how or why they were called that? I actually grew up calling them Rickety Ole (old?) Uncle. Mmm you know...I think I will go make some right now.